The Histology Core will provide comprehensive service to the Research Projects by making available: comprehensive tissue banking;proven histology methods;reliable reagents;necessary equipment; technical assistance, and expert pathology interpretation. The Histology Core will bring not only efficiency in routine methods, but also will allow more advanced morphologic techniques to be utilized as needed. It will offer routine frozen section and paraffin-embedded histology, special histochemical stains, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, photomicroscopy, image analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and laser capture microdissection. Nearly all of the necessary equipment is currently available in the Department of Pathology. These techniques will be supervised by Dr. Connolly and performed with the assistance of a Histology research assistant. This should allow investigators to assess the morphology, cellular constituents and protein expression with aortic aneurysms. The Histology Core will serve as a comprehensive Tissue Bank for this SCCOR, including database management and liquid nitrogen storage of aorta, plasma, serum, and buffy coat samples from the Projects.